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Capitol Punishment featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds or storylines that were played out on WWE's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a match or a series of matches.[6]

Raw's main feud was between John Cena and R-Truth for the WWE Championship. The crazed R-Truth started to set his sights on the WWE Championship and John Cena. R-Truth had been scheduled to compete against The Miz and John Cena at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship. John Morrison questioned Truth's ability to compete in the match and challenged him for his spot. Morrison won the match causing R-Truth to turn heel by attacking Morrison. R-Truth would cost Morrison the match at Extreme Rules. R-Truth claimed there was a conspiracy against him in WWE and announced he was done entertaining the fans. He repeatedly ranted about Cena's popularity and even harassed a young Cena fan and his father by throwing water in the father's face. The RAW General Manager announced a championship match between him and Cena at Capitol Punishment on the condition that R-Truth apologize for his actions. On the June 6 episode of RAW, R-Truth apologized for his actions and retained his title shot against John Cena.

Smackdown's main feud on the card was between former World Heavyweight Champion Christian and current World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton. Christian felt as though he deserved another shot at Randy Orton's title due to poor officiating at the Over the Limit pay-per-view. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long didn't grant Christian his title match, but he placed Christian in a match as the Special Guest Referee between Sheamus and Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. During the match, Christian refused to count "three" against Orton while Sheamus had his shoulders pinned to the mat. This angered Sheamus. Orton connected with an RKO on Sheamus and Orton retained the championship. When the match was over, Christian hit Randy in the face with the World Heavyweight Championship instead of giving him the belt. Christian then managed to taunt and mock Orton to the point that Orton agreed to another World Heavyweight Championship match at Capitol Punishment. Sheamus was going to be added to the match after winning a No Disqualification Match against Orton on SmackDown, thanks to interference from Christian. The match was Sheamus vs. Christian but Christian won the match. Afterwards, Randy Orton stormed to the ring but Christian escaped. Randy then settled on punt kicking Sheamus in the head, putting him out of action indefinitely.

Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger led a mini-feud leading up to Capitol Punishment. Bourne and Swagger exchanged a series of wins and losses.

But a more important feud on the card was between CM Punk and Rey Mysterio. Punk and Mysterio similarly exchanged a series of wins and losses like Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger did, but Punk and Mysterio were reigniting a feud dating back to WrestleMania XXVI. Punk enlisted the aid of his New Nexus cronies to help him win against Rey, but they were to be banned from ringside at the pay-per-view.

Ezekiel Jackson started to grow apart from The Corre, and wanted to pursue a singles career away from the group. Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, and Justin Gabriel didn't take kindly to Jackson's new aspirations, and promptly beat him down backstage. Jackson was given multiple opportunities at Wade Barrett's Intercontinental Championship, but each time he got Wade in the Torture Rack, his signature submission maneuver, Heath and Justin would run down and attack Jackson. This would make Jackson win the match by DQ, but titles can't change hands by disqualification. During a six-man tag team match against The Usos and Ezekial Jackson on SmackDown, Wade abandoned Heath and Justin. He claimed he was preserving his own interests since he had a title match at Capitol Punishment against Zeke, but Justin and Heath were angered by his actions. Justin and Heath then announced to Wade that The Corre was no more and he could defend his title on Sunday without their help, effectively dissolving the group.

Big Show sat on Alberto Del Rio's luxury car, which angered Del Rio. When they lost the WWE Tag Team Championships to The New Nexus, Alberto Del Rio mocked The Big Show and Kane backstage during an interview segment. Del Rio even slapped Big Show across the face. Big Show then chased Del Rio into the parking lot, but Del Rio's personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez "accidentally" ran Big Show over with his car. This injured Big Show's leg and left Kane without a partner. Del Rio and Ricardo then made fun of Big Show by having Ricardo dress like him, mocking Big Show's weight. Big Show then ran down to the ring and beat Ricardo to a pulp, putting him in the hospital and leaving Del Rio without his ring announcer. Kane had to pull Show away to keep him from killing Ricardo. Despite his injury, Show still wanted a match against Del Rio, and was granted one at the pay-per-view by Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Miz blamed Alex Riley for not regaining the WWE Championship. Miz fired Riley on Raw and Riley attacked Miz. Riley and Miz battled each other over the next few weeks, leading to a match between the two at the show.

The opening match was between Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston, who were feuding over the United States Championship after Dolph beat Kofi in a non-title match on Raw.

As WWE's 2011 June pay-per-view event, WWE Capitol Punishment replaced the 2010 WWE Fatal 4-Way themed event. Promotion towards this event was centered around the setting for the PPV, that being the United States capital, Washington, D.C. WWE produced a video to promote the event using actual press footage of President Barack Obama spliced and edited with footage that WWE recorded using actors. The video was intended to show Obama answering questions about Capitol Punishment in a press conference.[7] First airing on May 22 at Over the Limit, WWE received criticism for the video. To avoid legal complications with the U.S. government, WWE added a disclaimer at the start of the video for future airings. This included spelling out their acronym as "World Wrestling Entertainment", a name they ceased using earlier in the year.[8]

The parody of a White House Presidential press conference is intended to publicize WWE's (World Wrestling Entertainment) pay-per-view television event known as Capitol Punishment, which emanates from our Nation's Capital on Sunday, June 19.